Slow down your eating!

Slow down!

A number of recent studies around the world, from America to France to Japan, have revealed that eating until you are full and eating quickly are associated with being overweight. The Japanese study followed 3,287 adults aged between 30-69 who took part in a number of surveys on cardiovascular risk. The result highlighted the link between dietary habits and obesity which goes to show that it is not just what you eat but how you eat it.

This is further amplifies in what is known as the “French paradox” which refers to the fact that although the French diet is quite high in cholesterol-raising, calorie-rich, saturated fats from meat and dairy foods, rates of heart disease and obesity are lower in France than in the United States.

Much of the population’s relative immunity to cardiovascular disease is believed to stem from the famous French penchant for vegetables and red wine, both of which are high in artery-protecting antioxidants.

With regard to the other part of the Paradox – the rarity of obesity in France despite its people’s fatty diet -- a joint French-American team set out to test their hypothesis that the French savour their food more slowly and in smaller portions, compared with Americans (Rozin P et al 2003).

The team members came from the University of Pennsylvania and the government-funded Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique or CNRS in Paris.

As the authors stated the case, “… the French are leaner than Americans. The mean body mass index … is 24.4 for French adults … as compared with 26.6 for American adults … In contrast to the 22.3% of Americans who qualify as obese (BMI 30), only 7.4% of French so qualify … Although the French eat more fat than Americans, they probably eat slightly fewer calories.” (Rozin P et al 2003)

These facts raise an obvious question. Fat contains more than twice as many calories nine per gram), compared with carbohydrates and protein (four per gram). Since people in France eat more fat than Americans consume, how can the French be eating fewer calories?

Restaurant research proves revealing

The French and American researchers went to McDonald's fast food joints in urban shopping districts at the same time of year at lunch time, to record the time people remained seated with their food. They found that the average American customer spent 35 percent less time at the table. The French spent an average of 22.2 minutes eating and sitting at McDonald's, while Americans stayed only 14.4 minutes. But speed wasn’t the only difference the investigators uncovered. They also found that the French restaurants serve smaller portions.

They measured this by visiting other chain restaurants in Paris and Philadelphia, and measuring the weights of comparable meals being served, or, within the same chains, the weights of ostensibly identical meals being served. They found that the average portions served, even within the same chain, were substantially bigger in America (Rozin P et al 2003).